Today’s Topics: Roundtable-Style Good News | 3850 Switches | 5 Quick Tips for Motivating Others | News to Start Your Day
Happy Wednesday!
January 27th is National Chocolate Cake Day…this is def a holiday we can get behind and support! This might be the one day of the year it is acceptable to have cake for breakfast. (well, if you are over 5 years old…haha!)
It’s Wednesday, friends. The last Wednesday of January – so hard to believe. January is such a mixed bag for me. There is excitement because it is a brand new year of course. But I have to admit, after the activities at the end of the year get me out of my groove, I find it really difficult to get my routine rolling again. The more dreary weather and the abrupt change in pace from all the activity from December can leave me feeling a little down. It usually takes me until the beginning of February to start feeling like I’m back in the game. Anyone else there with me?
I was thinking through what to write about today, scanning mentally through recent events for inspiration, and I thought about a habit we have here at CK that helps us stay connected. We begin our weekly meetings with a roundtable-style good news and prayer requests time. To be honest with you, we probably take this time of connection for granted some days. I know there are times I struggle to come up with something to share, yet I know that sharing and listening to what is happening to others really does help me feel connected to the individual people here. Topics can range from things such as a new hobby or getting to have dinner with a loved one to news that a new baby is on the way (we heard this one this week). We also share more difficult things with one another by leaving room for prayer requests. What is shared can be more personal or can relate to work, and it takes about 1-3 minutes per person to share. So, if you’re not doing something like this in your business already, consider giving it a try. I highly recommend it, especially with how the new WFH environment makes relational interaction less frequent.
Until tomorrow,
Christin
Product Spotlights & Updates:
Today we’re taking a look at the Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series WS-C3850-48U-S! This incredible switch is equipped with Cisco’s popular StackPower technology which allows for power-sharing and redundancy. This 1RU switch features (48) 10/100/1000 UPoE ports, a 176 Gbps switching capacity, IP Base software, and a 480 Gbps stacking bandwidth. We currently have this switch on sale, so snag yours now!
5 Quick Tips for Motivating Others – Mark Sanborn, Author & Speaker
Everyone is motivated. The big question is what are they motivated to do and why?
Few subjects are more often discussed and less understood by managers and leaders than workplace motivation. To get the right results with people, you need to understand the basics of motivation to use it effectively.
Here are five tips to being a better motivator:
Motivate different people differently.
My research shows that less than 15% of employees have ever been asked by management, “What motivates you?” Instead, most use common motivators (money and other rewards) or read a top 10 list the describes in rank order the most effective motivators.
While that is helpful, finding out what is important to those you leader is most effective. Try asking these questions:
What most motivates you at work?
What do you most like to do in your job?
What would you most like to learn?
Who do you most enjoying working with?
What is your greatest concern or fear?
Of course asking isn’t enough. You need to effectively use the information they provide.
Clarify outcomes
People can’t hit a target they can’t see. Unclear direction creates unclear or at worst wrong results.
Often in our rush to get results, we don’t do a good job of explaining the results we want, and vague instructions create vague results.
Clarify specifically what you expect: the what, the why, the how, the how well and the by when. It isn’t micromanaging to give people more and better information.
Explain the reason “why”?
People are motivated when they believe there is a worthwhile reason and not just a capricious request from management.
If the reasons aren’t clear, spend some time explaining the rationale, reasons and benefits of a successfully completed task. The better the reasons the more likely a higher level of motivation.
Create an empowering environment.
In the initial book, A Great Place to Work, Robert Levering found that regardless of the type of company or location, a great place to work was where (paraphrased):
You trust who you work for.
You enjoy who you work with.
You take pride in your work.
Create that kind of a workplace and you’ll have an environment where your team is positively motivated.
Reward and recognize.
Recognition is verbal and rewards are tangible. They are both powerful motivators.
You can’t over-appreciate a team member unless you do it insincerely, and that is manipulation, not true appreciation.
Little things make big difference when it comes to rewards, from the familiar Starbucks gift card (for those who like coffee) to movie tickets to a late start or an early end of the day.
And here’s a bonus tip: be as motivated in your behavior as you’d like those you lead to be.
There is much any leader could and should learn about motivating others, so I encourage you to become a student. But remember and use these tips for a quick start at getting better.
This is from Mark’s blog found HERE.
Today’s News to Start Your Day:
- As of this morning, in the US, there are 9,808,357 active COVID cases, 15,767,413 have recovered and there have been 435,452 deaths.
- Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Rosalind Brewer will replace Stefano Pessina as CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the drugstore chain confirmed Tuesday evening. Brewer will be the only Black woman leading a Fortune 500 company. Brewer has been with Starbucks since 2017.
- Your Amazon Echo can make it sound like a dog is barking inside your house if your security cameras sense movement when you’re not home. You can set your lights to turn on and off, based on your past usage, to make it look like you’re home; have it alert you if it hears glass breaking or a fire alarm, and more. Here’s how to use Amazon’s Alexa Guard and new $5/month Guard Plus features.
- Widespread internet outages appeared to hit much of the northern East Coast on Tuesday, with reports of issues coming in from Boston to Washington, DC. Problems were reported for multiple services, including Zoom, Google Meet and Amazon Web Services. However, issues may be linked to a larger internet service disruption, with some impacted customers pointing to Verizon Fios. The Verizon support account on Twitter noted that a fiber cable had been cut in Brooklyn, New York, possibly contributing to some of the issues reported Tuesday.
- Senators were sworn in as jurors on Tuesday in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection, with proceedings scheduled to get underway in two weeks. The Senate voted down a motion brought by GOP Senator Rand Paul challenging the constitutionality of an impeachment trial against a former president. But just five Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the measure, an indication that Democrats will not attract the 17 Republicans that would be needed to convict Mr. Trump at trial. The trial is expected to begin the week of February 8, after attorneys for the president and the House impeachment managers have presented evidence for their cases.
- President Biden has signed a record 37 executive actions in his first week in office, possibly more, while the exact number of executive orders is not known because the Federal Register has not been updated since Jan. 21. With just six days in office under his belt, the 46th commander-in-chief has issued more edicts in his first week than any of his predecessors.